1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wireless systems and secure backup. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for securely storing data in a public storage area over a wireless network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Mobile client devices, such as mobile telephone handsets, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wireless computing devices, will have an ever increasing role in the future for accessing and securely storing sensitive data, whether personal or system data, in a public storage area over a wireless network.
FIG. 1 shows a functional block diagram of a wireless terminal 100 that provides a conventional secure backup over a wireless network. Wireless terminal 100 includes a memory 101 for storing data and a backup/restore module 102. In the situation when data, such as personal data and/or system data, is to be encrypted by a user, the user specifies data that is to be encrypted and then supplies the user's public encryption key to backup/restore module 102. Backup/restore module 102 accesses the specified data in memory 101 and encrypts the specified data using the user's public key. The encrypted data is sent to, for example, a public storage area 103 over a wireless network 104 in a well-known manner. The encrypted data can only be decrypted using the user's private key. When the user desires to access the stored encrypted data, the encrypted data is downloaded from storage area 103 and decrypted by backup/restore module 102 using the user's private key in a well-known manner.
Nevertheless, what is needed is a convenient way for securely storing sensitive data in a public storage area over a wireless network. Additionally, what is needed is a way to conveniently share sensitive data among different users.